Yahoo Axis: A New Way to Search

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Wouldn't it be great if rather than looking at a bunch of links after doing a Web search, you'd just land on the site for which you were looking? What if Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" choice always worked perfectly so that you didn't have to pore over 10 blue links? Yahoo today introduced new search tools under the Yahoo Axis moniker that attempt to enable that worldview.

Yahoo Axis is available via iOS apps and browser plugins for the four major Web browsers  Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Android apps will follow later this year. The way Yahoo Axis works is notable for its simplicity, and the search experience is especially suited to tablets such as the iPad, because of its use of swipe gestures.

As with any other search utility, you start with a search box. And as with all modern search sites, you'll see suggested search proposals drop down as you type. But what happens next is new: A filmstrip-like view across the top of the screen shows large thumbnail-view search results. Tapping on one opens the page in full screen. Swiping takes you to the next result.

For some searches, like weather, you'll see relevant information in a box as you type. The Axis app serves the function of a full Web browser, with tabs implemented as large thumbnails that appear when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. The desktop browser plugin works similarly, except result previews show up across the bottom of the window. The browser plugin sports favorites and recent search syncing, and unlike browser-specific syncing, it works with any browser on which you install the plugin as well as with the Axis mobile apps.

Another key feature for Yahoo Axis is that search sessions are synced across devices. So if you started a search on your desktop or iPad, the next time you open Axis on your smartphone, you'll see a "Continue from iPad" choice on the phone. The interface also has Favorites that serve as visual bookmarks, and Read Later sections for easy access from any device. The apps also let you share via email, Twitter or Pinterest.

PCMag sat down with Ethan Batraski, Yahoo's head of product for the company's 50-person search innovation group, last week for a run-through of the new take on search. "We're focused on 'what is the next search experience," Batraski said. "Our strategy from the beginning has been the idea of answers, not links. Search right now has three steps: you put in a query, get to a search result page, and then go to the results. Then you have to go back and forth between the results and the result page."

The idea behind Yahoo Axis is to reduce the process to two steps, getting you right from your query to your results. "Get rid of the search results page altogether," said Batraski. "We built a system that propels you toward being successful and prevents you from thrashing back and forth between results. It turns search into a companion instead of a destination."

The apps and plugins also allow Yahoo some leeway to reorder search results to optimize them based on click feedback. On the Yahoo Web search site, this isn't possible since the company outsources its back-end results engine to Microsoft's Bing. On top of this, Yahoo has been investing in its own indexes and search corpuses based on semantic technologies.

In summing up the motivation behind Axis, Batraski said "we're trying to bring people a new way to search, because they've been stuck with this archaic way of searching for 10 or 15 years, looking at 10 blue links." He was also clear about Yahoo's view of the future of Web browsing. "Our focus has been mobile first: Design and develop for the mobile devices, and then port over to the desktop."

Yahoo Axis is available today for download for iOS devices from the iTunes App Store and as a desktop plugin for HTML5-enabled browsers. Android apps will follow later this year. You can browse to axis.yahoo.com for more information and to get the browser plugins.

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine’s lead analyst for software and Web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine’s coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of Web Services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine’s Solutions section, which covered programming techniques as well as tips on using popular office software. Most recently he covered services and software for ExtremeTech.com.
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